Trespassers
by The Sneaky Author
Summary: Two kids jumped a fence. Two kids end up in the world of their favourite TV show. Two kids start swearing. (I'm writing this as a Christmas present for my friend, I would love some criticism)
1. Chapter 1

Ben looked at the gate with consternation. Hannah didn't.

In actual fact, Hannah grinned at the gate. Grinned! As though she didn't see the big NO ENTRY signs plastered all over it. As he gave the junkmail one last nudge to shove it into the postbox, Ben thought it a good idea to point this out to her again, seeing as she seemed to have forgotten. "No entry, Hannah. It's there for a reason." he groaned, reaching into the rolling Ralph for the next bit of junkmail.

"But we could climb over and find that it's the entrance to another universe and the Doctor whisks over and picks us up!" she opined, running a hand along the bars of the wide gate to the units on the other side.

"Or we could climb over and get shot for trespassing." Ben shot back, rolling his eyes as he bent over to focus on what his hands were doing, losing Hannah's pout behind Ralph's cloth sides. Honestly, what did she think was going to be of interest on the other side of that gate? Grunting, he bit back a curse as the rubber band broke and lashed at his poor, defenceless hand. Extracting both the stubborn paper and his wounded hand from the bag, he looked up to see Hannah swinging her legs over to the other side of the wall to the side of the fence and leaping down, crouching to absorb the shock of landing. On the wrong side. The trespassing side.

Ben's eyes flew open wide and his brow creased simultaneously. "Hannah!" he yelled as she straightened up and dusted off her overalls. Eyes hunting the units for anyone that had spotted his friend, Ben ducked closer and lowered his voice to a harsh whisper. "Get back over here before someone sees you!" he ordered, gesturing desperately at the ground.

Hannah threw a grin his way but didn't listen, merely motioning for him to join her as she began to explore the other side of the gate. Ben, unable to allow his best friend to go and get herself shot alone, grumbled viciously and looked around nervously as he clambered over the fence, pulling Ralph through with him at the last second. At least if they were caught, they could pretend the rolling bag full of junkmail was their reason for being there.

His long strides taking no time to catch up to Hannah's significantly shorter ones, Ben gave her as disapproving a look as he could manage before his curiosity kicked into gear. He looked around himself as they wandered down the road, before he saw a side road with a field or garden of some kind…it looked magical. He steered towards it, knowing Hannah would notice and follow eventually. The first step onto the grass felt like heaven! The flowers seemed to spring up around him as he walked, little bees floating between them. The bushes on either side were the good old Aussie ones that looked amazing and had spikes. There were a few gnarled old men trees that had been around an age and survived so much that only old age dared to fell them. Ben couldn't help but smile at the beauty as he slowly meandered through the grass.

Hannah smiled at his side, waving a hand through the leaves to her side. She'd doubtless have some sort of hayfeverish reaction to it later, but who cared, she loved the feeling of the leaves running through her fingers. "See, totally worth jumping the fence." she grinned.

Ben threw her a look, but it held no chance against the giddy grin that wrestled for control of his facial expression, and soon there were two sixteen year olds wandering through some kind of forbidden, beautiful garden with a bag full of junkmail and thoroughly contented smiles.

"Oi!" a gruff, deep voice yelled from behind them, freezing the friends in their tracks as they looked back to see a solidly built man with a threatening look to him and a sneer to his lips.

They were not nearly quite so contented anymore.

"Crap!" Hannah cursed, throwing Ben a face full of her wide eyes. A second later, they both took off in a run, whizzing out of the other side of the garden. They flew down the street, Ralph still in tow, bolting into a side alley and streaking to the left before their founder could follow.

They continued to run for a while until they could no longer hear the man's heavy footsteps, and stopped by a wall. Ben, a long distance runner, kept glancing back, his hands tightening and loosening compulsively on Ralph's handle, his breathing only slightly laboured. "We've gotta go back and on our side of the fence." he said, shaking his head as he craned his neck to peek over the wall they were hiding behind.

Hannah, the despiser of physical activity for any extended amount of time, dropped to the ground with her back against the wall, red and sweating. "You're right." she allowed, pulling off her black rimmed glasses and cleaning them with a well-practiced move on the inside of the pocket of her overalls. Her brow creased with confusion. "But why was he so mad? All we did was take a stroll through a garden. For all he knew, we could have been delivering junkmail." she added, gesturing at Ralph. She did a double take. "You kept ahold of Ralph?" she asked, bemused.

Ben shrugged, pulling the little bag closer. "I like Ralph." he replied .

Hannah shrugged. Fair enough. "Well what now? We can't go back the way we came with Mr Grumpy standing guard."

"We could find a different way back." Ben suggested, throwing his gaze about for just that.

Hannah nodded. "Well, you know how good my sense of direction is, and my eyesight isn't exactly crash hot, so that's up to you Scoutboy."

Then there was a noise.

The noise was so familiar that neither of the friends thought anything of it when it first came into their hearing.

And then it registered.

"What?" Ben asked.

"No…" Hannah added as they gaped, staring first at each other and then at the space the sound was coming from, where now a wind was picking up the leaves and rubbish, throwing them about like toys.

"The TARDIS?" Hannah asked incredulously, unable to believe her own untrustworthy eyes as blue appeared before them.

Ben could tear his eyes away from it even less then Hannah could. He couldn't even blink. "What was that you said about another universe?" he asked in as quiet a whisper as could make it over the loud and distinct whirring and whooping of the pair's favourite time-travelling police box.

The TARDIS now stood fully materialised before them. The doors swung open and a hand stuck out, exactly like so many of the memes and the fanart drawings. Like on the TV show.

A head stuck out, shaggy hair that needed a cut, a big chin, a big nose, wearing tweed and a bowtie. "Well? Come on, we don't have all day!"

Another voice behind them yelled loudly. "Oi! You two!"

They didn't need to spin around to recognise the voice of Mr Grumpy, and so before they knew it, Hannah and Ben were pushing each other into the TARDIS and pulling the doors shut behind them.


	2. Chapter 2

The Doctor skidded around the TARDIS console, jabbing buttons and shoving levers, leaving Ben and Hannah standing by the door, both still coming to terms with the whole…inside the TARDIS…thing…

"So, we've got a pleasant looking little villagey area, all lovely houses and people and smiling, I've never liked villages like that, they're just too, peaceful, no, anyway, so then we've got you kids, nothing too special about you that I've seen, both human, and that man, the grouchy one, the…" Here the Doctor paused to give them his impression of the man that had followed them, squishing his face into an animalistic form.

"Mr Grumpy?" Hannah offered.

The Doctor spun around and continued his mad dash around the console. "Yes! We have Mr Grumpy. That's a combination I travelled three universes to investigate. Well, the too peaceful villagey thing and Mr Grumpy, you guys were unexpected extras, but it just adds some more flavour to the concoction! And now we have me!" Throwing one final lever, he spun to fix his bowtie and give them a charming look. "Hello, I'm the Doctor."

Ben found it impossible to drag his eyes away from the Doctor. He couldn't be seeing this…

"Well, you're not lying." Hannah murmured, followed by a whisper to Ben. "I'm wearing a Dr Who shirt." She was wearing overalls as well, they covered the majority of the TARDIS on her shirt. Out of the corner of his eye, Ben spied the bottom of the time machine stick out of the side of the front flap.

Oh, this was going to be hard to explain.

The Doctor seemed to be waiting for something; neither of the kids had given the inside of the TARDIS more than a cursory glance. "Well, it's bigger on the inside?" he asked.

Ben nodded. "Yeah, we know." was all he could manage to come out with right then.

Hannah, seeming to have worked through the shock block in her mind suddenly sparked into action, throwing her arms up. "It couldn't have been 10, could it?!"

The Doctor's face seemed to expand with his shock. "What?" he half-yelled, followed by a slightly offended, "Hey!"

Hannah pouted at Ben, but then couldn't help but to grin in her hyperactive manner as she strode forward and patted the Doctor's shoulder. "Don't worry, I like you too."

The Doctor's flustered gaze followed her as she went snooping around the bits of the TARDIS that never appeared on the show, and he eventually turned back to Ben, who took it upon himself to be the polite one.

"Hello, I'm Ben." he forced out, unable to think of anything more articulate whilst standing in front of the Doctor. The _Doctor_! Well, that went well…

The Doctor brushed off his attempt at being polite with a gaze best described as a mix between confused and curious. "Nice to meet you, you know? What do you mean you know?" Continuing on, he spun to shoot an accusatory look at Hannah. "And what do you mean you prefer 10? I'm 11. 11's a much cooler number than 10."

Hannah's head popped out from behind a pole to share a flummoxed look with Ben. "Ten was my first Doctor, he'll always be my favourite." Hannah offered as a reason, knowing that this was confusing the Doctor, and they were unlikely to get another shot at such a thing.

Ben, catching on, offered yet another exceedingly useful statement. "The same way we know that you have a sonic screwdriver."

"And psychic paper!"

Before Ben could get an explanatory word in the Doctor was off again. "Ok, well, you can't _know_ those things unless you're from my future, but you say 10 was your first Doctor." he said in an almost accusatory tone.

"Yep." Hannah said, ever helpful.

The Doctor's face lit up. "Oh, and I said you were nothing special." he grinned as he did a little skip and took a seat. "Ten is my past. And I don't remember you, so, the question now is, how do you know me?" he asked, crossing his legs, obviously preparing for some fantastic explanation.

Ben took a step closer, standing awkwardly by the console as Hannah peeked over the balcony atop the stairs. "Ah, well, we're kinda fans." he began.

Hannah's face grew momentarily serious as her hyperactivity got put on pause. She didn't add anything, just looked down, watching for the Doctor's reaction.

Swallowing past the dryness in his throat and searching for the right words, Ben continued, "We don't know how to explain this, but-"

The TARDIS rocked sideways as they landed.

The Doctor sprang to his feet. "There'll be time for that later! Come on along kids!"

Hannah hurried down the stairs, shooting a whisper towards her best friend. "Talk about television clichés…"


	3. Chapter 3

The Doctor ran a few steps out of the TARDIS, stopping to spin around and check his location. Ben followed more slowly and Hannah exited last, walking out with her face pointing towards the sky and her surroundings. "Where are we?" she asked, doing a spin of her own while Ben took in the environment. "When are we?" he asked.

It was old. That much was obvious. The buildings were rooved with thatch, the roads dirt paved with stones. The trees that were so cut back and the grass that was rarely allowed to grow in Ben's time were here allowed free reign, the village that they appeared to be standing in the middle of having been built up around the foliage.

"We haven't moved." the Doctor told them. "We are in the same spot, but 3 000 years earlier." He wasted no time admiring Hannah and Ben's impressed looks, simply marching forward and lying flat on his stomach, putting an ear to the ground.

"Any orcs coming, Aragorn?" Hannah joked as her and Ben took a few steps forward.

The Doctor popped up again, still not looking at the pair as he whipped out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it towards the village. "Lord of the Rings reference, right! I'll be Aragorn. Aragorn is cool."

Ben tried desperately not to gape as the full effect of what had just happened hit him. They were with the Doctor, they'd been inside his TARDIS, they'd _time-travelled_! That figure that only existed on a screen and in the minds of writers and directors, the man that came out of a costume cupboard, he was standing in front of them with his sonic screwdriver flashing and bleeping like the loyal companion it was. They were in another universe! They'd crossed a fence and that was it, bam, they were in another universe. Multiverse theory, it must be true…

A surge of adrenaline hit Ben just as the Doctor tasted the dirt and began to take long strides back into the TARDIS. "Ok!" he exclaimed as they bounded back into the time machine, Ben shutting the doors behind them. "I'll stick some stuff into the thing on here," he commentated as he put something, presumably some dirt, into a technological looking thingamajig on the TARDIS console, clapping as it took it and moving his sticks again. "And it can analyse that while we go and do some old fashioned investigative work." He grinned boyishly, obviously excited by the concept.

Ben looked over at Hannah, who had finally taken a seat and had one of her more serious looks on her face. "You took samples before you dove headlong into the adventure?" she asked, and Ben's brow creased even as he bounced from the pent up adrenaline that was in his system.

The Doctor shrugged. "Well we could get tied up and not be able to go back and check later on." he explained shortly as the TARDIS whooped and landed.

Ben's eyes widened at that. "Tied up literally, sometimes, we know. This had better not be an episode where the TARDIS disappears until we solve the mystery. Those episodes never seem to go well for the companions."

Hannah snorted in response, and the Doctor merely gave him a strange look before they bounded out of the doors once more, the second time in ten minutes.

This time they walked quickly to the edge of the alley, for they were back where they had found the TARDIS not fifteen minutes earlier. The Doctor peeked around the corner in an attempt to check the road. "All clear." he whispered, and the trio marched out onto the road, walking up it calmly.

Hannah didn't hesitate to stick her hands in her pockets and ask, "What are we doing?"

"What's going on in this place?" Ben said at almost the same time, and the pair merely nodded at each other before looking askance at the Doctor, who shrugged.

"I've no idea what's going on in this place, so we're going to go and ask someone." he told them calmly as he turned to knock on a door.

Hannah and Ben reluctantly turned to follow, Hannah grumbling, "Oh great, cause that always works out so well."

The pair plastered pleasant smiles on their faces and stood behind the Doctor as the door opened with the sound of locks being slid open. An old man appeared on the other side of the carved wood, his face weathered and lined with experience, his blue eyes slightly clouded, not as bright as you'd expect from someone with such a piercing gaze. "What?" he asked without prelude.

The Doctor smiled is his charming way and flashed the man his psychic paper. "Good afternoon sir, I'm here to do some routine neighbourhood checks," he rattled off before tucking the paper back into a pocket. "Have you experienced any problems in the area recently?" he asked politely, bouncing on his toes with his hands clasped behind his back.

The old man frowned the fearsome frown of age, lines running deep in his face like creases in a piece of paper, like valleys between mountains. "No, not until you arrived at least. It's strange men like you that bring trouble to the area."

Suddenly the old man seemed to catch sight of Ben and Hannah. He shrank back slightly from the door, those frown lines deepening and stretching into crevices carving up his face in anger. "You should know better sir, kids aren't allowed in these parts. You get rid of them before you come asking any decent folk of their business." he hissed, slamming the door shut.

Ben felt his ire rise, but his confusion came along for the ride and he was rendered speechless as the door shut in his face. He'd spoken of them like they were vermin or something!

The Doctor merely nodded at the door, his greeting and apology fading from his lips as he began to think. He turned to the side and cast a critical look over Ben and Hannah, both searching their minds for something they'd done to merit such treatment.

"No kids…" he murmured, a small grin tugging on the edges of his lips.


	4. Chapter 4

Ben felt an eyebrow raise. "What are you grinning about?" he asked suspiciously, watching the Doctor think. In all honesty, Ben was having a moment of awe. The Doctor, the greatest mind in the known universe and an alien was thinking in front of him, thinking about him. It would have been enough to shock him into an awestruck silence even if he didn't belong on a television show.

"Oh, you know, nothing, everything, that man we just spoke about, a nice cup of tea." the Doctor babbled with an entirely unrepentant smirk. "Come on, next house." he added, spinning on his heel and marching towards a house a few doors down and across the street with a flap of his tweed. He'd knocked and started chatting before Ben and Hannah had even started moving.

"The kids here for the festival?" a gruff voice asked as Ben and Hannah levelled with the Doctor. They looked up to spy a tall, fat man with beady eyes and a sweaty countenance, who seemed to have the lazy persona of someone granted too much power with too little work.

"Festival, yes. Yes, they are." the Doctor assured him, his gaze jumping from the kids to the man.

A pudgy sneer of a smile squashed the man's eyes into tiny black specks on his face as he took in Ben and Hannah's countenance. "I'll take them through." he offered, stepping back from the door in an ominous invitation inside.

The Doctor spun around and put a hand on either child's shoulders as the man waited, regarding them with hungry, piggy eyes.

Ben did _not_ want to go to the Festival, whatever it was, not with that man. He just felt…greasy, and slimy and…not right. One look at Hannah showed that she shared his sentiment, but neither spoke, because the Doctor was grinning at them.

"You two are going to be my spies on the inside." he informed them, clapping them on the shoulders. "You find out what's going on in there," He dangled a watch in front of Ben, who took it and put it in his pocket. "And I will find you and pick you up in three hours." he promised, straightening up again.

Hannah yanked him back down again. "Do you know what's going to happen to us after you leave us with that slimeball?" she hissed.

The Doctor put a hand on the side of either kid's face. "That's what you're going in to find out. You two will be fantastic, and don't worry, I won't let them hurt you. Three hours, I promise."

That promise set Ben on edge. That was a cue for a demonic writer to make sure that Ben and Hannah got hurt, a cue for a lot of angst on both sides, and for the red on the Doctor's ledger to make a grand appearance, but nevertheless, it felt good having that promise from the Oncoming Storm.

"Besides, you're kids. No-one wants to hurt a kid."

Ben sighed as any chance they had to get through this adventure unscathed flew out of the window.

The Doctor straightened up once more and cast a bright grin at the fellow in the doorway, ushering Ben and Hannah forward.

Hannah nudged Ben lightly, the action making her rebound off him more than it moved her six foot tall friend. "Hey, it's a festival, it can't be too bad." she reminded him, giving him a reassuring grin. Ben however, was more interested in the reckless gleam in her eyes that had had her jumping a fence with a No Trespassing sign on it, and try as he might, he felt his own sense of adventure rise up to meet it as they stepped into the greasy man's house.

"You two follow her." he ordered gruffly, gesturing at an old woman who seemed to be a maid of some kind, though not a particularly pleasant one.

Ben and Hannah fell in behind her and disappeared through a door with nary a glance behind them, and the Doctor couldn't help an enigmatic smile.

Who were those kids? Where had they come from and how did they know so much about him? Sure, there was google and the internet, but they hardly seemed the reverential or vengeful types that usually went to such efforts to find him, especially given their reactions upon meeting him.

They seemed confused, and exasperated, like they had been watching him for years…

The fat man at the door chuckled, a horrendous gargling noise that sent fumes of tobacco over the Doctor's face. While he was trying not to breathe in, the man added. "Thanks for that. It's better if we call it something nice. I came up with calling it a festival. They don't kick up as much of a fuss."

The Doctor's giddy excitement was struck down by a bolt of guilt and fear, but he kept up his grin and fun manner. "Very clever."

"Nice doing business with you." he laughed. "You wanna come have a drink?"

Politely declining, the Doctor backed away a few steps. What had he sent those kids into? Reluctantly shaking the man's pudgy hand, the Doctor turned away and rushed back to the TARDIS.


	5. Chapter 5

The walk through the house was made in silence with the maid leading the way and Ben and Hannah taking in the house around them and trying to take a guess as to where they were going to end up.

Hannah had tried to prod the maid into conversation, but she had ignored them except to seem slightly shocked by the fact that they could speak. She certainly wasn't encouraging such a phenomenon by responding.

Ben on the other hand was taking in the house, looking down hallways and through half-open doors, just in case they needed to know the house for an escape later…The whole place wasn't particularly pleasant to look at, he had to say. Everywhere was floored with lino and the varnish and paint where there was any decoration at all was chipped and stained. The house smelt like the man at the door, greasy and slightly putrid. It was almost a relief when the maid led them out into the bright sunlight. She spun around and locked the door behind her, leaving Ben and Hannah alone outside without a word.

The pair exchanged confused glances, before their heads swivelled in unison to take in their new environment. They were in a giant outdoor cage, bordered by fences lined with barbed wire and chain link doors at regular intervals. The floor was hard-packed dirt with an occasional tuft of dry grass, nothing like the beautiful gardens and manicured lawns they'd seen outside. It looked like a prison workout yard. As soon as Ben had made that comparison in his head, a chill began creeping up his spine. The similarities were almost uncanny.

There were other kids in there with them, maybe ten of them, in various states of distress. Some were openly weeping, some were huddled together against the fence, there were even a couple frantically working on the gate lock.

Hannah and Ben looked at each other with wide, concerned eyes.

"What have we gotten into?" Hannah asked somewhat rhetorically.

Ben shrugged, but didn't respond. He didn't really know how.

Hannah moved forward, striding confidently towards the closest other kid, a tall, skinny girl with brown hair in a pony. She didn't seem as stressed as the others and watched Hannah with wary eyes as she approached. "Hi."

The girl nodded. "Hi."

Hannah sank down beside her and Ben moved closer awkwardly, earning himself another nod from the girl. "I'm Hannah, this is Ben, we're really new around here." Hannah began easily, pleased that the girl had shifted over slightly to make room for her to sit.

The girl snorted with a terrible sad humour. "You can tell. I'm Sarah."

Ben threw a glance at Hannah and asked, "Why can you tell that we're new?"

Sarah shrugged, fixing Ben with a stare. "You're clean and you're not crying, basically." she replied in a tone that was too resigned to be bitter.

Ben swallowed hard past the lump of emotion in his throat as the chill in his spine crept higher. He didn't know what this place was, but it wasn't right.

Hannah met Sarah's gaze, obviously sensing that pleasantries were going to be completely wasted. "What is this place, where are we?"

Sarah's green eyes were sharp and seemed far too serious and old for a girl that could only be 14 or 15. "We're in a holding pen. They keep us in here until we're all too hungry to put up much of a fight when they come."

"When who come?" Ben asked.

Sarah's gaze turned suddenly to pity. "You guys really are new, aren't you?" She shook her head. "Did you get brought in for the festival?"

Hannah nodded and Sarah suddenly looked as defeated as a person could look. "If they're bringing in outsiders then we're never getting out of here. They're too powerful." she murmured.

Ben felt his rage rise and put a hand on Sarah's shoulder, needing contact with her, needing to feel like he was doing something for her. "No. We're getting out. We have a friend, he's coming to get us in three hours, he promised." he told her, showing the girl his borrowed pocket watch as Hannah fixed Sarah with a serious gaze. Ben could see the anger had gotten to her too. "Don't doubt him, he's a legend, and he will save us or die trying, but first, you need to tell us exactly what is going on here."

Sarah looked at them both with well-honed scepticism. "I'm sorry, but I do doubt him. Outsiders can't change what happens here. But you two deserve to know what's about to happen to you."

Hannah and Ben exchanged nervous glances at the ominous and defeated Sarah. "Go on then." Hannah murmured, and they readied themselves for what would be a confronting conversation.

Sarah took a deep breath. "It started a few months ago. All of the older citizens began to hate kids more than usual, the whole, young whippersnappers thing turned into a real hatred, and then the parents began to hate us as well. Eventually, it just boiled over and us kids were getting taken at night, our own parents were giving us away and putting us in jails. It was the little kids that went first, the ones that couldn't defend themselves. I got some mates together and we made a run for it, we took as many little kids with us as we could find and hid. Over time both sides built up, the elders went from imprisoning kids and keeping us in holding pens like this one to forcing us into slavery, making us into servants, forced labour. Any that fought back were taken and disappeared. No-one knows where they go, they just vanish. They usually turn up again a couple of weeks later, and they never make a fuss again. There were hunts for us, the kid-catcher going around in a van like the dog-catcher. That's all they see us as, animals. We managed to run and hide long enough, they didn't really put too much of an effort into finding us renegades, but then came the festival. They doubled the effort, tripled it, they found us within a couple of days. We don't know what the festival is, but it's more than the usual slavery. They're getting as many kids as they can find, even bringing in outsiders, and we're all vanishing. We're the last lot in here, the festival, whatever it is, starts tomorrow." Sarah finished with nary a wobble in her voice.

Ben felt a sharp stab of anger mingled with fear. This was real fear for the first time since the adventure had started. He didn't know what they were doing, where they were going, or where they'd be in three hours. And most of all, he didn't know whether the Doctor would be able to save them. He turned concerned eyes on Hannah, but she wasn't looking at him. Her fear would manifest later, he was sure. In the meantime, she was staring at Sarah. "How long have you been in here?" she asked.

Sarah shrugged. "About four days. You're lucky, today's pick up day."

"Is there anyone else still out there?"

Sarah's eyes took on a glazed look for a moment. "Derren escaped the last raid where they got me. I don't know whether anyone else escaped, but I doubt it. They got Derren's sister about a month ago. She put up a fight, but she hasn't turned up like the others, she's still in the complex somewhere."

Hannah nodded. "Ok. The Doctor is coming for us, he knows something's up, I just hope to hell that he figures out what it is."

Ben exhaled in a huff of righteous anger. "Sarah, we _will_ get everyone out of this."

Sarah nodded minutely, and it was obvious she didn't believe them.


End file.
